Letting Go...

For our family, this has been an emotional spring/summer. It began when our sweet friends, who also happened to be out pastor and his family, told us God was calling them to another church. They have been with us for 10 years and our families are very intertwined in each others lives. They were there when our children were born, we were part of their wedding, and we were there when their children were born. We have celebrated with each other and we have mourned with each other. We have shared everything life brought our way and the thoughts of our friends leaving was heart breaking to all of us.

Growing up Southern Baptist, I know that God moves pastors and their families and that is just part of being in ministry. I have always been sad when I had to lose a pastor I loved but this time, I was having to deal with letting go of precious friends and that has proven MUCH more difficult than just letting go of a pastor. So when we found out they were leaving at the end of school, we made it our mission to spend as much time with them as we could. We started with an afternoon of swimming. Claudia & Cooper LOVE Robert & Nathan. We all love William so much and we are sad that he won't know us the way the other boys do. God gave us a beautiful Saturday afternoon to swim with Robert and Nathan.

We also went to several baseball games to cheer them on! Robert & Nathan were both so excited when we'd come and cheer for them. We will miss getting to watch them play ball next Spring.

And then this little prince was there to

make my heart melt.

And finally we said goodbye with a Sunday School party at our house. It had to be the COLDEST day in May ever. The kids swam and I have no idea how they didn't freeze to death! We had fun but it was bittersweet because we knew it was our last hoo rah before our friends had to move on and follow God's will to their new home.

We miss them so much but we are so thankful they are happy and enjoying their new location. We will treasure the years we had with them here and we will make sure to stay close to them so we can keep up with those precious boys as they grow.